


The City Book

by MrProphet



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Gargoyles (TV), The Jungle Book - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-22 14:33:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10699005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrProphet/pseuds/MrProphet





	The City Book

"Look, kid; it's simple. Tell us your name. Tell us where you come from. Tell us what you were doing in that building when it burned. Tell us something!"

The youth looked up impassively into the heavy, violent face of the policeman. His calm was almost inhuman, as cool and impervious as the unyielding stone of the city itself.

_The infant crawled across the rain-slick stone, teetering on the edge of the drop, heedless of the danger it faced. Gently, Gresham put out a paw to guide him back. "He should go back to his own kind."  
_

_"We can care for the child," Arcadia insisted. "Among humans he would be easy prey."  
_

_"It is a danger; a risk to us all," Gresham reminded his mate.  
_

_"We have a rookery to mind; what is one more?"  
_

_Arkham frowned. "We shall see," he said at last. "We shall see what the Clan have to say."_

The police spent days sifting through the burned-out husk of the warehouse, all the time turning up stranger and stranger items. Pieces of gold, strange objects inscribed with weird writings and huge, stone eggs. There were even a cluster of cracked and fire-blackened statues, although those were somehow misplaced from the evidence locker.

Harvey Bullock got nowhere with the only suspect, the teenage boy with the stone-faced look, and at last the Commissioner called him off and tried a different tack. He waited for the boy to be fed and given a chance to wash up, and then brought him back into the interview room.

"Tell me about Ra's al Ghul," he said.

That got a reaction.

_"The boy is mine!" Ra's al Ghul declared. Behind him, a pack of the Clan's younger members hunkered in challenge. It was rare to see such a show of division in the Clan and it was a testament to the power of al Ghul's words.  
_

_"The boy is with the Clan," Arkham replied calmly. "The Clan does not answer to you, Ra's al Ghul." He looked around at the crowd gathered on the rooftop. "There is dispute, and thus the boy must be sponsored. Arcadia speaks for the boy, but she stands as mother and Gresham as father. Will any other speak?"  
_

_"There is no harm in the boy; I speak for him." The voice was that of an old warrior who had never taken a name like the younger members of the Clan; as even Arkham had done. He was known only as the Teacher, for he taught the ways of the Rookery to the hatchlings and the laws of the Clan to the fledglings.  
_

_"He will bring destruction on you all!" Ra's al Ghul declared, but the Teacher shrugged and said: "I think it more likely that you will seek to do so, and still I speak."  
_

_"One other then!" Arkham called out. "Will one more speak!"  
_

_"I have no right to speak, but I will purchase the child's life for a proper price." These words came from the thin air, but in a moment and a flash a slight, smiling figure stood there. This was Puck, one of Oberon's Children. All knew him and none cared to cross him, because he was as wild as a beast and as cunning as a man, with a power that matched the gods.  
_

_"For the boy's life I add to the Teacher's words an abandoned tower where a young clutch could found a rookery, which I have hidden from the eyes of men. Will this do?"  
_

_"Yes! Yes!" the younger members of the Clan called. "Say it will, Arkham!"  
_

_Without that backing, Ra's al Ghul knew that he was beaten, and he walked away, but the wise among the Clan knew that he would surely return in time._

"One day, the truth will come out," the Commissioner went on. "It'll go easier if you tell me before I find out."

The boy looked at him levelly. "I've nothing to say," he replied.

"I know. Someone's coming to collect you," he added.

At this, the boy looked startled.

"Oh, yes; we've found out who you are."

_Arkham fell, his wing broken by a collision with a light aircraft, and his rivals chose to take advantage of his weakness. That was when Ra's al Ghul came for the boy and the Clan stood awed and let him pass.  
_

_But Puck had taught the boy well, and with trickery and no little magic he was prepared. "Here!" he cried to the Clan. "Here is the power of the Third Race that you fear!" and by the force of his mind alone he kindled the flames that consumed the Seonee Building and its Rookery, forcing Ra's al Ghul to flee.  
_

_As the sun rose, the Clan became stone and they woke in the dusk healed and chastened, to recover by stealth and force their eggs and seek new shelter elsewhere.  
_

_And the boy went at last with his own kind._

The boy stood in the main hall of the police headquarters as Commissioner Gordon spoke to a tall, grey-haired man. At last, the man came over to the boy.

"Master Bruce," he said in a soft voice. "I am so very pleased to see you after all this time."


End file.
